As we head into awards season, the Bradley Cooper-directed remake of “A Star is Born” is getting plenty of nominations, including five Golden Globe nods (the awards will be presented Jan. 5 in Beverly Hills). And with the start of the awards shows, it’s officially that special time of year when your gay friends prepare for what is the equivalent of our NBA finals, the World Series and Super Bowl, all in one.

In the fourth film by this name, Lady Gaga steps into the shoes of previous “A Star is Born” leading ladies Barbra Streisand (1976) and Judy Garland (1954), both gay icons of the first order, and leans into her own pop star gay iconography hard. (Janet Gaynor starred in the original film in 1937.) With so much gay diva energy swirling around the project, we have to ask, is the new take on “A Star is Born” the gayest film version of the Hollywood tragedy yet? Let’s examine the evidence.

We begin with Gaga’s opening scene, pre-title, where she warms up singing the musical Easter egg that is the lesser-known introductory verse of Garland’s “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.” After that auspicious beginning, roughly 45 percent of the movie is in strong conversation with gay culture. While the Judy and Barbra versions of the story have become hallmarks of a certain kind of musical goddess worship in cinema, Gaga and Cooper’s version is perhaps the first that is self-conscious about the story’s possible place in the gay pantheon, and the role gay audiences play in making films starring powerful female performers into cultural touchstones.

Here’s our ranking of each of the three “A Star is Born” remakes on a scale of 1 to 10, from unintentionally gay to “a probable theme for a Pride Parade float.”

James Mason and Judy Garland in A Star is Born, Handout Photo ran 4/20/1983 p. 56

James Mason and Judy Garland in A Star is Born, Handout Photo ran...

“A Star is Born” (1954)

Starring: Judy Garland and James Mason

What’s gay about it: Judy, Judy, Judy! Garland was a gay icon of such magnitude there’s not only an apocryphal story about her death being the spark for the gay liberation Stonewall Riots in 1969, but also, once upon a time, certain tribes of gay men would call themselves “friends of Dorothy” after her character in “The Wizard of Oz.” The film was a comeback for Garland, who had been fired a few years before from her longtime studio MGM for problems stemming from drug and alcohol addictions. The story of the making of “A Star is Born” (directed by the gay George Cukor) became as much a part of the myth of the film as Garland’s personal life became to her legend. Garland’s introduction of Harold Arlen’s torch song “The Man That Got Away” was a standard on jukeboxes at gay bars for years.

What’s not gay about it: The film was made in the 1950s, so there are no out gay characters. Actually, there isn’t even an alluded-to-as-possibly-queer character in the film to point to.

What’s gay about it:La Streisand’s take on the tale (“directed” in name by Frank Pierson under producer Streisand’s supervision) is what the kids today would call “woke.” Esther’s song “Woman in the Moon” is a feminist anthem a la Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman,” and she is the one to propose marriage. The central love ballad, Streisand-composed “Evergreen,” (an Oscar winner) has become one of her best-known hits of the era and is a lip synch favorite for Barbra drag impersonators. The film also veers uncontrollably into camp territory at times with its over-the-top 1970s riche post-hippie set designs and costumes ranging from garcon three-piece-suiting to ethnic ponchos pulled from Streisand’s own closet. John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion’s script is so full of melodrama and dramatic confrontations that lead into the couple having sex it sounds in places like dialogue pulled from a drag parody. Streisand is the unparalleled star of the film and has enough candle-lit closeups and long concert shots to make a whole series of devotional coffee-table books to Santa Barbra.

What’s not gay about it: Again, no out gay characters and less gay leadership behind the scenes. With all the high-speed car tracking shots, it feels a little bit like “Smokey and the Bandit” with a less country music score.

Ally (Lady Gaga) sings in front of a stadium crowd for the first time in “A Star is Born.”

Ally (Lady Gaga) sings in front of a stadium crowd for the first...

“A Star is Born” (2018)

Starring: Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

What’s gay about it: Almost everything. Our couple first meet in a drag bar where Ally (Lady Gaga) is performing “La Vie en Rose” in her own bio queen (biologically female drag queen) drag while “RuPaul’s Drag Race” stars Shangela and Willam Belli emcee. Ally’s gay best friend, Ramon (“Hamilton” actor Anthony Ramos), pops up every few scenes to squeal at the prospect of another private jet flight. It should also be noted that out bisexual Lady Gaga seems conscious of the enormous gay cultural weight she carries on her shoulders stepping into the Garland/Streisand role, and there are tiny homages in her performance and the script to divas past. References to Gaga’s nose recall scenes in both films and Ally’s dance pop makeover nods to the “Born This Way” singer’s own rise in the club scene. Writer-director Cooper, who is straight, seems completely unintimidated by engaging with the film’s, and Gaga’s, gay audiences. The couple’s duet, “Shallow,” is no doubt being put on many LGBT makeout playlists at this moment.

What’s not gay about it: Well, it is a heterosexual love story. Bradley Cooper’s Kris Kristofferson-esque Jackson Maine is a pillar of the dangers of toxic masculinity as he drinks, pops opiates and suffers from memories of his hard-drinking father. Also the appearances in the film by comedians Andrew Dice Clay and Dave Chappelle, both whom have a history of anti-LGBT comments in their performances, are problematic at best.